by Mike Thaler
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CHAPTER 10
just right
Penny and I are standing in
front of our school. It’s great to
be out of class.
We’re watching the free world
go by when a small car drives up.
An old one at that. It parks and out
steps a nice lady in a suit. I guess
she left her crown at home.
She smiles and says, “Hello.”
We answer, “We’re Penny and
Hubie, and we’re the two who
have been picked to welcome
you.”
She shakes our hands as we
continue, “We’ve read all your
books and will write a long letter
telling you how to make them all
better.”
“Well, thank you, Penny and
Hubie.” She shakes our hands
again.
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“We’re here to show you the
way, and we hope you have a very
good day.”
“Thank you.”
“So just follow us into the
school cause we think that you
are really cool.”
“Well, thank you. I also think
you’re cool.”
“My name’s Penny, too,” says
Penny.
“How nice,” says Penny Inkblot.
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CHAPTER 11
straight from
the author’s mouth
Well, to make a short story
long, Penny, as she told us to call
her, really was cool. She loves to
write and feels very lucky to be
an author. She said that we could
be authors, too, and she told
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Mrs. Beamster to put our books
in the library next to hers. She
said all you need to be a writer
is a pencil, a piece of paper, and
your imagination. She said our
imaginations are as good as hers
but you have to exercise them
every day, just like a muscle.
She says she is working on a
new book—
Lip Bowling
.
Sounds like a winner.
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Then she gave us lots of tips
about writing, like have a good
title. Sometimes a whole story
can grow out of a title, or out of
a good first line. For instance, ”I
woke up this morning and my
bed was on the ceiling.”
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She said we can be anything
we dream, if we’re willing to
work hard enough. She said we
should start today, and if we want
to be writers, we should write
something every day.
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So when I got home from
school, instead of turning on the
TV, I wrote a story that started,
“When I went to sleep, my bed
was on the ceiling.” It’s called
Upside-down Dreams.
I dedicated it to my friend
Penny Inkblot, and tomorrow
I’m going to ask Mrs. Beamster
to put it in the school library.
Then I’ll be an author, too.
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